Local Pages

Sunday, September 25, 2011

This afternoon, we had a bit of a fall wind storm role through the area. The lights went out in my Shop, and did not appear to be returning soon. So, I decided to take the opportunity to go play Radio and take photos in the Mountains.

One of my favorite destination is a Rock Quarry on the east end of Mt Pilchuck range (2600'), actually it is on Bald Mountain. It is up a long winding graved access road, about 5 miles off the highway.

We stopped several times along the Loop Highway, to take photos and use the facilities.

On the way up, I heard several QSO's on 6 meters and then more on 10 meters. They were saying that 10 meters was open and I would have to agree - there was a lot of SSB chatter.

Tess at the edge of the cliffat the Rock Quarry

Once parked at the Rock Quarry, I set up and configured the radio and antenna for 10 meters. I made several QSO's with people calling CQ, and answered many more that just did not hear me. My 5 watts was just not making it. I also rechecked 6 meters with only a little luck.

The Northwest Puget Sound Fall weather was great, it was a little damp and smelled of fresh rain. And of course, rain keeps the dust down on the mountain roads, which is nice. The weather was very unstable, one moment it was dark and threatening, and then next is was full of sun.

From the Rock Quarry,looking Northeast, at Threatening Rain, . . .

and then, the same area a few minutes later,I was standing in warm sun.

We stayed at that the Rock Quarry for about two hours. I saw only two cars on the mountain, and one of them was the local Sheriff.

Hey, with a Dog, Radio, Vistas and Photos - What more could you ask !!?

Sunday, September 11, 2011

The September ARRL VHF QSO trip started early about 7:30am Saturday morning, I packed up the VAN with food, drink, radio gear, Tess (my Dog), and headed for Green Mountain CN98. I wanted to be on site early to setup the Boddipole Antenna and get the radio set up, and have time to attempt to get the computer working.

On the way up to the mountain, I heard several 6 meter QSO's so I figured it would be a good day for the contest. I had plans to work mostly 6 meters, and a fall back plan to work 2 meters.

At the selected 3200' site, I decided to configure the Boddipole as a 3 element beam, which I had not done before. I supposedly have all of the correct parts for at least a 2 element 6 meter beam. I have extra parts, that maybe I could use them to expand the configuration to include the third element. With a little hook-or-crook, the three element bean was up and adjusted via the MFJ-269 Analyzer for a perfect match. Note: later I plan to run the configuration into one of the antenna analyzer software packages.

At the Contest Start Time of 11:00am Local, the band came alive with lots of Calls on 50.125MHz and 50.145MHz. Most of the High Power Stations quickly exchanged Calls and Grids, and then it was the QRP stations turn. Because of my elevation (3200') most of the Puget Sound stations could be heard and my QRP 5Watts was heard by most that I called. There were several rovers that were more difficult to confirm, but I confirmed all stations that I could hear.

Tess chased Grasshopper and played fetch, but it was too hot to spend too much time in the sun, we kept the VAN running, parked facing North with the Air Conditioner on.

After about two hours on site, I decided to pack up and move to a second location about 10 mile West on Mt Pilchuck (at 2400'), a place called the bench. I would have an unobstructed view to the South, I wanted to see if I could work into California. The road to the bench is very ruff where low vehicles can not make the trip.

On the way down Green Mountain and to the second site, I met another vehicle coming up the hill with a rack of very long UHF beam antennas. The previous day I had heard the someone was planning to be on the mountain with some Microwave gear and I wanted to meet and check out their operation. The person in the vehicle was Ray - W7GLF, we stopped and chatted a bit, he was looking for the vista at the 2900' level and he had not been on the mountain before. I explained it was further up the mountain, but the site is very narrow with diminished view as the tree have grown. I asked if he would mind if I came along to watch his operation. He said I was welcome, he would continue up and I would follow, but I had to continue down the hill until I could find a spot to turn around. The dust on the road was bad, and therefore our separation between vehicles would work to our advantage.

After passing the 2900' level, with a light trail of road dust continuing up the hill, I realized Ray must of not recognize the site (even though it is the only south facing vista). We continued up the hill to the next major vista at 3000', Jay was parked waiting for me. The problem with this site is that it only faces North, and therefore unusable for Microwave communications to the South and West. I explained there is another site at 3200' (which I had left earlier) with good vistas of most Puget Sound and maybe some to the West. Of course, straight South is Mt Pilchuck which maybe a problem for a microwave path to he friends near Mt Rainier. We decide to try it anyway.

Back a my initial site, I set up the Buddipole as just a 6 meter dipole, while Ray set up his Tripod mounted 10GHz Microwave link and his car roof top mounted long boom UHF antennas. He wanted to park is car in the intended direction because the UHF arrays were currently tied to the top. This site has a large vista, but only a little window through the trees to the West and maybe he could work his friends in that direction with the portable Microwave Dish. After coordinating on 2 meters, the 10GHz Microwave link was just not going to work (too many trees). They decided to try a mountain bounce off of Mt Pilchuck. It would be a 90 deg bounce off of the West end of the mountain. With a little coordination on 2 meters, it was successful, a CW and then a SSB contact was made.

Then Ray and his other friends on Mt Rainier (South) tried the same - it was not going to work. They figured Mt Pilchuck was blocking all UHF signals, they thought they might be lucky and get a little edge refraction over the long West slope of the mountain, but NOT.

The view to Mt Rainier was almost straight South, through Mt Pilchuck!

While Ray was trying to work his magic on UHF, I made several more local 6 meter contacts.

We decided to move down the mountain to the West end (at 2900') where Mt Pilchuch would not block the view to the South.

I would lead the way to the new site and park where Ray could have the primary spot for the narrow view through the trees to the South, to set up this Long Boom UHF Antennas and the 10GHz Microwave Dish. Parking along the road shoulder is very narrow (with a 1000' cliff), and therefore Ray had to untie the Antenna Rack on top of the car to rotate the UHF Antenna Array. With very little coordination, UHF QSOs were logged with Ray's friends at Mt Rainier. They decided to try the 10GHz Microwave link, it required a little more pointing but was equally successful. I logged a few more contacts on 6 meters, this time using my long whip on the VAN.

The two Green Mountain sites are located at the ends of the line on the following map:

Monday, September 5, 2011

After being soaked, excess PC was squeezed out of the Sponge, so the test was started with a ready-to-use moist Sponge at my Solder Station.

After 14 days, the results are very good, the Sponge is still slightly moist, pliable and readily accepts water (or more PG). Normally by this time, the Sponge would have shriveled to a water-repellent cinder - the Crispy Critter.

Propylene Glycol is cheap, non-toxic, and is readily available as a pink liquid from the Hardware and RV stores, as Potable Water Tank Antifreeze.

I consider the lessons learned, from my previously spilled PG event, a success.